USB Type-C : Explained

A while ago, there were a lot of rumors about a new type of USB connector. All of those rumors were confirmed couple of months ago, when those information leaked and so the Type-C saga began. This story took a little bit of inertia, this week at CES 2015 (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas, where MSI presented a motherboard that had one Type-C port on it.

Before I start talking about performances and possible scenarios in which this connector will shine, let`s remember what`s USB, and how it evolved to be the most used connector on the planet. As Wikipedia sais, USB or Universal Serial Bus, is an industry standard developed in the mid-90s that defines the cables, connectors and communications protocols used in a bus for connection, communication, and power supply between two electronic devices. Who we have to thank for this? In fact there are more than one company in the back end and those are Intel, Compaq (now HP), Microsoft, NEC, Digital Equipment Corporation, IBM and Nortel.

USB`s past isn`t as bright as you might think, as the first generation only offered a 1.5 Mbit/s (Low Bandwidth) and 12 Mbit/s (Full Bandwidth) . In April 2000, after 4 years from the launch, the second generation was released, with speeds that were way faster than previous versions, offering 480 Mbit/s Bandwidth, but due to restrictive bus access, the effective throughput was 35 Mbit/s. In this part of time, the ever famous Mini and Micro. After 8 years, in 2008, USB 3.0 was introduced promising transfer rate of 5.0 Gbit/s, but the payload throughput was only 4 Gbit/s which translates into almost 500 MB/s. Also the power specifications were bumped to 5A current handling with 1.5A current drawn.

USB 3.1 is the latest upgrade, with transfer rates of 10Gbit per second, which in theory translates into a whopping 1.25 GB/s transfer speeds, with those speed upgrades come some power upgrades as well ( 3A over 1.5A) which in theory will make your phone charge 2 times faster. Type-C is a new type of connector, that is reversible and will be used on both Host and Device side as it`s replacing Type-A and Type-B. With the change in shape, there are some disadvantages like no backwards compatibility.

This connector will shine the most in the mobile department, as it`s way rugged than the age-old Micro connector. Also, it will shine in every department where slim design is a must like Ultrabook or notebooks or any other stuff of this kind.

In conclusion, USB 3.1 and Type-C in particular are bringing a doubling in performance, an improved Power Delivery (a maximum 100W power drawn) and in the case of Type-C an connector that we were asking for way too much time. Thank you for reading, if you liked it leave a like, a tweet or a +1, and if your thoughts are more complicated than this, leave a comment down below.

BMC

My name is BMC and I am a superhero. Well, maybe not a superhero, but what is certain is that I am an aspiring writer with high hopes and big dreams. I started writing in the summer of 2013 on this website and let me say, it is a fantastic ride!

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